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Infiltration Issue 1
Premise Hunter, Jimmy, and Verity discover that their pursuers are robots...in disguise! Synopsis Some might call him a lunatic, but Hunter O'Nion is ''certain that he knows the truth: Earth has been invaded by gigantic "extra-vehicular entities", capable of disguising themselves as terrestrial machinery. While his website may seem preposterous to the uncritical eye, he believes; to that end, he set off on a cross-country road trip to find any evidence of the intruders—a quest that led him to Verity Carlo.'' In the present day, Verity and Hunter speed through the deserts of southern California aboard an ambulance manned by a blonde, perpetually smiling, driver and pursued by a blue fighter jet. Verity doesn't like the look of the situation and wants off, but Hunter realizes that they're moving far faster than any regular ambulance... leading him to conclude that their impromptu rescuer is also one of "them." Before the two humans can make any sense of this, they're flanked by a pair of familiar sports cars—one white, one black—who join the pursuit, gleefully using their own weight and momentum to try and throw the ambulance off-balance. The ambulance driver asks if the two humans can be trusted—and when they agree (Verity reluctantly so) the steering wheel and instrument panel transform into a sophisticated three-dimensional heads up display. The ambulance driver informs the two humans that the other cars are "the enemy," and as their pursuers deploy side-mounted battering rams, the ambulance retaliates by revealing hidden gun ports. Badly damaged, the cars end the chase; as the jet closes in on its target, the ambulance makes a clean getaway by deploying a thick smokescreen and gunning it. Verity logs onto her stolen palmtop, brushing off Hunter's suspicions about how she obtained the device and finds the fugitives a place to hide: the automotive workshop of Jimmy Pink in nearby Riverside. When asked about his story, however, the ambulance driver only cryptically refers to himself as a "conscientious objector." Beneath Lake Michigan, aboard the ''Ark-19, the ambulance driver's superior shuts down his proposal to intervene in the assassination of a human, citing it as an inefficient waste of resources.'' Arriving in Riverside, Verity and Jimmy meet up, and after trading some friendly jabs he and the ambulance driver get to work on the repairs while Hunter and Verity have a chat. When pressed by a skeptical Hunter, Verity reveals that she and Jimmy are both net-hikers, members of a community of drifters who use the Internet to maintain their mutual-assistance network. In the garage, Jimmy continues to repair the ambulance, surprised by its unusual workings; as he's occupied, Hunter shoots a glance at the stolen palmtop. Having tailed their targets to Riverside, the jet and sports cars are back on patrol, but can't find their targets. They do have a lead on the palmtop's signal, however, and when someone activates it again, they'll be able to track it right to its source—a prediction that comes true seconds later, when O'Nion flicks on the device... Jimmy finishes up repairing the ambulance and marvels at its sophistication. When he asks to learn more about the strange ambulance, Hunter appears to lay down a flurry of outlandish accusations: the ambulance is one of the aliens he's been tracking, Verity's stole her palmtop from its previous owner, and that device is why the other aliens have come after them. As proof, he confronts the ambulance driver with a picture stored on the device: a photo of a robot in mid-transformation. To Verity's surprise, the ambulance driver says that Hunter's theories are true; sick of the conspiracy paranoia, she snatches the palmtop back from them and storms off. Hunter tries to get the ambulance driver to open up about the nature of his "enemies" only for a terrified Verity to reappear inside, babbling frantically about Decepticons. Seconds later, the garage door is blown off its hinges, sending debris everywhere and smothering the smiling ambulance driver. But suddenly he's in the driver's seat of the ambulance, demanding the three of them to get in... and as he does so, a pair of giant robots—one black, one white—appear and demand they hand over the palmtop! Characters * Ratchet * Prowl * Runabout * Runamuck * Thundercracker * Starscream * Hunter O'Nion * Verity Carlo * Jessie * Stoker * Jimmy Pink Errors/Inconsistencies * Prowl is miscolored as Ironhide on page 12. * If Ark-19 is in Lake Michigan, why are there sharks in the water? Sharks are predominantly a saltwater fish. * Runabout and Runamuck are pretty much color-swapped the entire issue, until the last page. How can you tell? Because Ratchet blows out Runabout's window in the vehicle mode battle, but on the last page, robot mode Runamuck is the one with the blown-out window. References * The mention of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and its given date of 1984, are both obvious nods to the origins of the original Generation 1 stories. * This second issue of the IDW Generation 1 continuity also has several plot similarities with the second issue of the original Transformers comic. In both, a human ally take a wounded Autobot to an auto shop, where the mechanic comments that he's never seen a car like this. After the Autobot is repaired, some Decepticons appear, a battle ensues, and the location gets wrecked. In that earlier story, Verity and Hunter are replaced by Buster Witwicky, Jimmy by Sparkplug Witwicky, Ratchet by Bumblebee, and the Battlechargers by the entire earthbound Decepticon army. * Hunter's workstation includes DVDs of Ghost in the Shell and the Matrix, along with an "I want to believe" poster as popularized by The X-Files, and a Yoda toy. * Verity quotes Arnold Schwarzenegger as she refers to Ratchet's grave proclamation in the last issue. Trivia * Hunter's website has some cheeky foreshadowing for future issues, setting up some concurrent plot threads that will play out in different Spotlight issues. ** The first paragraph mentions "dinosaur-variant mechanoids" unearthed in Eureka, Nevada, a plot thread that will play out in Spotlight: Shockwave. ** The site also mentions the eruption of Mount St. Helens, which will tie into Spotlight: Soundwave. * The current group of Autobots and Decepticons are established as arriving on Earth circa 2002; their presence became known to nerds and various fringe groups following an incident referred to here as the "Buchanan crop manifestations" in Iowa. Issue #8 of Optimus Prime will reveal that, of the current group of Transformers, Jazz was the first, having arrived to scout out the planet. (Later installments in the IDW continuity will reveal that various groups of Transformers have had a hand in pretty much every era of Earth history.)